


A 







1904 




JAN 10 1905 
D. ofD. 



INTRODUCTORY 



A STUDY of this booklet will convince you that 
Springfield has the elements within and surround- 
ing her that assures a great and substantial 
growth. A superb climate, the best of water, a beau- 
tiful and elevated location, and a surrounding territory- 
rich in agriculture, horticulture and minerals, combine 
to make her what she is, and what she will always be, 
i. e., the Metropolis of Southwest Missouri and the 
Queen of the Ozarks. 

She holds these titles because she has earned them 
by a half century of solid, steady growth. Town build- 
ing, not town booming, has been her motto. There 
has been no boom or mushroom growth here. Rail- 
roads have entered, factories been built and wholesale 
and retail trade established, because there have been 
legitimate demands for the same. 

Springfield stands today the fourth city in size 
within the State, having a population of about 35,000. 
She has undeveloped resources sufficient to make her 
a city of 100.000 in the next decade. She has room 
for scores of factories and business enterprises that 
would find this city a most excellent location. City 
and farm property is moderate in value; you can still 
get in on the ground floor. Do not procrastinate ! 
Investigate Springfield's resources and advantages, in 
person, if you can; if not, write to the Bureau of Pub- 
licity of the Springfield Club. 



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LOCATION AND CLIMATE 

SPRINGFIELD, the county seat of Greene county, is 
located in the center of Southwest Missouri on 
one of the highest plateaus of the Ozark Moun- 
tain range . An elevation of nearly 1 500 feet above sea lev- 
el insures an invigorating and pure atmosphere. Moun- 
tain springs of splendid water furnish a bountiful supply 
for present and future needs. The surface of the country 
is gentl}^ undulating; the climate the best to be found 
between the Allegheny and Rocky Mountains; winters 
are short, usually commencing with January and end- 
ing in early March. The thermometer seldom goes to 
zero and snow lasts but a few days at most. Spring 
and Autumn weather is delightful, while mid-summer 
has none of the hot, oppressive days common to the 
Northern States. On account of the elevation, there 
is always a breeze. The thermometer seldom goes to 
90, and the nights are cool and pleasant, there being 
not over half a dozen nights in the year that one can 
not sleep comfortably under a blanket. The average 
year's rainfall is 45 inches. 

This country is singularly free from epidemics, 
while the diseases so fatal to childhood, such as diph- 
theria, scarlet fever, etc., are sporadic in nature and 
very mild. In fact, the climate, the elevation, the 
water, the surface drainage, and all conditions favor- 
able to health that could be desired, combine to make 
Springfield a city of exceptional healthfulness. 

BUSINESS INTERESTS 

Springfield is the center of the great Frisco- 
Rock Island System, whose lines radiate in every 
direction. Twenty-six passenger trains arrive and 



depart daily and fast freights rush the produce 
and fruits to the world's markets. She has 20 miles of 
electric city and suburban track, 52 miles of water 
mains supplying pure, spring water, a splendid electric 
and gas plant supplying the city with $1.00 gas. 

Her wholesale business is not surpassed by any 
city of her size in the West. Over $2,000,000 is in- 
vested in wholesale lines and the annual business 
amounts to over $12,000,000. Springfield is the dis- 
tributing point for the fruit growers and shippers. 
There are three large cold storage plants and an im- 
mense banana warehouse under the joint management 
of the Frisco System and the Fruit Dispatch Company. 

The city retail trade is conducted by progressive 
and up-to-date business men, and many of hei stores 
compare favorably with those of large cities. No city 
in Missouri, with the exception of St. Louis and Kan- 
sas City, draws a retail trade from so large a tributary 
territory as does Springfield. 

Taxes are low, being $1.60 in the country and 90 
cents in the city on the $100, Valuations are assessed 
about one-third of actual value. 



MANUFACTURING INTERESTS 



No city of equal size in the West can boast of so 
many successfully conducted shops and factories as 
Springfield. Over $2,500,000 of capital is invested in 
manufacturing plants that employ 1500 men, with an 
annual pay roll of over $1,000,000. The yearly output 
of her products amounts to $8,000,000. The Frisco 
System maintains her general shops here and pays to 
her 2000 employees more than $100,000 per month. 
Every month witnesses the establishment of some new 



factory, universally successful, which is the best proof 
of the superiority of the city for such enterprises. 

Springfield is a convenient point for the distribu- 
tion of manufactured products. Fuel and water are 
cheap and abundant; labor is of a high grade. Nearly 
all her employees own their own homes and are inter- 
ested in the growth and prosperity of the city. Living 
is cheap and for that reason labor is better contented 
and more reliable than in many cities where higher 
wages are paid. 

Springfield has eight banks with a combined cap- 
ital stock of 1450,000 and deposits of over |6, 000,000, 
the latter being more than double that of any city in 
the State, excepting St. Louis, Kansas City and St. 
Joseph. There are few cities in the United States, 
with a like population, that dare compare bank ac- 
counts with Springfield. 

HOMES, SCHOOLS AND 
CHURCHES 



Springfield is pre-eminently a residence city. Her 
beautiful location on top of the Ozarks, her healthful, 
invigorating climate and pure water have induced 
well-to-do and refined people to make this a city of 
beautiful homes. Wide streets, large lots, shady lawns 
and handsome dwellings, impress the visitor with the 
fact that here is found refinement and culture. A 
wealth of shade trees, shrubs and flowers give to the 
homes of the poor as well as the rich an attraction 
equalled in but few cities of our nation. 

Springfield's people are cosmopolitan, coming from 
ever}^ section of the United States. Socially, educa- 
tionally, religiously, a higher standard is not main- 



tained by any city of equal size in America. Among 
her many public structures are, Government building, 
erected at a cost of |150,000; a $50,000 Carnegie Li- 
brary; a 1100,000 Theater building; a |50,000 High 
School; a |30,000 Club House and |150,000 Frisco 
Hospital. 

Springfield is proud of an unexcelled public school 
system; she has one of the oldest and best Colleges of 
the West (Drury), with 500 students; a Normal School 
six years old, with 700 students; two Catholic Schools 
and two fine Business Colleges. 

Springfield has 40 churches, representing all de- 
nominations, many having a membership ranging from 
500 to 700, and owning elegant church buildings. 

AGRICULTURAL AND LIVE STOCK 
INTERESTS 

No similar area in the United States is capable of 
raising as great a variety of crops as Southwest Mis- 
souri, and the yield will compare favorably with the 
best anywhere. Corn, wheat, in fact all the cereals 
flourish. The prize winning corn at the Chicago 
World's Fair was raised near Springfield, and her win- 
ter wheat takes first rank wherever exhibited or mar- 
keted. The best land yields from 40 to 80 bushels 
corn per acre and 25 to 35 bushels of wheat. Here is 
the natural home of the blue grass. Southwest Mis- 
soiiri equals the famous blue grass region of Kentucky. 

Live stock of all kinds and of the best breeds are 
found in Greene county. Excellent pasturage, short 
winters, even temperature and good water, make 
stock raising very profitable, and horses, mules, cattle, 
sheep, goats and hogs are all profitably handled and 



have made the Southwest Missouri farmer prosperous 
and contented. Stock can be wintered here for one- 
fourth as much as it would take to keep them in Iowa. 
Two large creameries with the largest up-to-date 
equipments have been built in the city this year (1904.) 
The conditions favorable for stock are also favorable 
for poultry raising, and nowhere else in America is 
this industry carried on more successfully and profit- 
ably. Springfield has a large packing house, and three 
large poultry packing plants that have made this city 
the greatest shipper of dressed poultry in the world. 

HORTICULTURAL INTERESTS 

SPRINGFIELD stands today the center of the 
greatest fruit region of the globe. Twenty years 
ago there was not a commercial orchard in all 
this territory; today there are millions of fruit trees 
and thousands of acres of berries whose products not 
only go to all the large cities of America, but to Eu- 
rope as well, and yet the fruit industrj^ is still in its 
infancy. 

Cheap and unproductive lands have been trans- 
formed by the hands of horticulturists into orchards 
and fruit farms of great value; land that was worth, 
ten years ago, from $5 to ^25 per acre, is now valued 
at from |150 to |500 per acre, and often yields an in- 
come for one year equal to the value set upon it. 
From |100 to |500 per acre profit per annum on fruit 
or berries is the customary yield. Ten acres properly 
grown to fruit or berries will furnish a good living for 
a family, while 40 to 80 acres would support them in 
opulence. 

Truck farming is pursued with splendid results, 
there being no less than 40 Tomato Canneries in 
Southwest Missouri, and more under construction. A 



large plant was established in this city this year (1904). 
Tomatoes yield a profit of from |50 to |75 per acre, 
while many garden crops make a much greater profit. 

OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE 

An era of wonderful growth aud prosperity pre- 
vails in Southwest Missouri, which is nowhere more 
manifest than in Springfield, her natural metropolis. 
A thousand houses have been built in this city within 
the past year; scores of new industries established, 
and the impetus given will carry her population to the 
100,000 mark. This section has more natural resources 
for the sustenance of a larger population to the square 
mile than any other on this continent. 

The tide of immigration is setting strong to this 
region; the population of city and county is increasing 
and will increase enormously. There is room here 
and a future for the energetic man who wants to use 
his capital, brain or muscle, and there is welcome to all. 

For further information write 

G. A. RAMSEY, Secretary, 
Bureau of Publicity of Springfield Club, Springfield, Mo. 

The following real estate firms of Springfield, Mo,, 
are reliable : 

W. E. Blanton & Co. Dixon & Shattuck. 

A. W. Ollis & Co. Phillips & Meyers. 

Springfield Trust Co. C. H. Young & Co. 

W. H, Johnson, E. C. Jones. 

Ramsey & Taber. J. D. Sheppard. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




1904 



